There are a lot of display manufacturers who are banking on that most nostalgic of would be media evolutions - 3D - as being the next big thing in consumer gadgetry. 3D Laptops, 3D monitors, 3D HDTVs. But all of these stabs at bringing another dimension to your home media experience require the user to either wear 3D glasses or sit in a very specific position in relation to the screen. Neither of these solutions are going to satisfy customers for long.

Sony's trying to get a headstart in coming up with a 3D alternative. They have created a 3D prototype display that allows users to see all 360 degrees of an image in the full dimensional spectrum available to the human eye. That strange anthropormorphic rabbit, visible on the cylindrival display, can be seen from every angle, simply by walking around or rotating the display.

The prototype is a stereoscopic affair, parceling out a 24 bit color image that measures only 96 x 128 pixels. It's a neat bit of technology, but it's hard to see Sony's end game here.

Clearly this isn't meant as a prototype for any form of television technology, since no one is about to start shooting video in 360 degree panorama. Possibly, then, the display could show the same 3D image on all sides… or even across a curved, 180 degree angle. That would make sense: no one is going to put a 3D television in the center of their living room, and a 180 degree curved 3D display would allow 3D across an acceptable number of viewer positions while still being wall mountable.